Debut hoops: Cougars put on show for fans at Marriott Madness
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- BYU’s Richie Saunders shoots a jumper during the Blue/White Scrimmage at the Marriott Center on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.
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- BYU’s Kennard Davis Jr. (30) drives on teammate Aleksej Kostic in the Blue/White Scrimmage at the Marriott Center on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.
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- BYU freshman AJ Dybantsa (3) shoots over teammate Keba Keita in the Blue-White Scrimmage at the Marriott Center on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.
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- BYU women’s basketball player Delaney Gibb, left, takes a photo with a young fan at the “Party on the Plaza” event before Marriott Madness at the Marriott Center on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.
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- Two BYU basketball fans shoot baskets at the “Party on the Plaza” event at Marriott Madness at the Marriott Center on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.
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- BYU students Ashley, left, and Brynn model basketball jerseys before the start of Marriott Madness at the Marriott Center on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. The school handed out jerseys to the first 8,000 students to show their ROC pass at the event.
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- BYU student que up before the start of Marriott Madness, a preseason event for the men’s and women’s basketball teams at the Marriott Center, on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.
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- Two young BYU fans play basketball at “Party on the Plaza” before the start of Marriott Madness at the Marriott Center on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.
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- BYU women’s basketball players Heather Hamson, left, and freshman Sydney Benally joust during the “Party on the Patio” event at Marriott Madness on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.
Was it worth the wait?
BYU men’s basketball fans have been talking about the 2025-26 Cougars all summer long and on Thursday got their first look at the roster at “Marriott Madness” and the annual Blue-White Scrimmage.
The BYU dunk team did their thing to energize the crowd and the men’s and women’s players were introduced to mostly uniformly dressed fans — 8,000 BYU basketball jerseys were given away before the event — then a short 3-pointer contest was showcased. With the crowd building to a fever pitch, BYU put nearly an hour on the clock for the men’s players to warm up for a 20-minute scrimmage that was interrupted by time outs every few minutes and a 15-minute halftime.
By that time, most of the restless crowd had consumed all of the Cougar Tails and mint brownies they could handle and wandered out into the rainy night.
So again, the question, was it worth the wait?
Like most scrimmages, there were moments of brilliance but plenty of turnovers and fouls. The Cougars have been playing against each other in many practices over the summer and now into fall, so the bouts of raggedness shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone.
The impossibly high expectations for Kevin Young’s second team at BYU will keep the fans coming back for more, that’s a guarantee.
Only 11 players suited up for the scrimmage with seniors Dawson Baker and Nate Pickens, along with sophomores Rob Wright III and Brody Kozlowski, sitting out.
“We’re just trying to stay healthy, honestly,” Young said. We’ve been banged up, so that was a big part of just trying to keep guys upright. That’s kind of why we played the amount of minutes that we did. You just want to see guys being able to execute the things that we’ve been working on, which there was a lot to like tonight. Obviously, there’s a ton of stuff that we need to continue to get better at.”
The scrimmage was divided into a 12-minute first half and an eight-minute second half.
The first half was evenly matched and finished in a 24-24 tie.The Blue team was led by freshmen AJ Dybantsa and Aleksji Kostic with eight points each and junior Mahialo Boskovic added seven. Senior Richie Saunders and redshirt freshman Khadim Mboup each had seven points for the White squad and Dybantsa totaled five assists.
The rosters were juggled a bit in the second half with Saunders and Dybantsa combining on the White team. The Blue team won the half 20-17, with five points and six rebounds from Mboup and 5 of 5 from the free throw line from Kostic. Saunders topped the White team with eight points.
There are nine players on the roster who were in front of the home crowd for the first time.
“It was electric, you know?” said senior guard Kennard Davis Jr., a transfer guard from Southern Illinois. “I’ve seen the ROC (the student section). We had some first game jitters but it was nice so it was a good experience.”
Young added: “It’s been great, honestly. We have a really good group of guys. I think they all really like each other, which is super important. They’ve all fit in really well into the community, into Provo and to BYU. And so it’s been great. It’s just been good, good vibes.”
The crowd, which filled up most of the lower bowl at the Marriott Center, stood for the introduction of the men’s team and cheered the loudest for Dybantsa, the No. 1 rated recruit in the country, and Saunders, a returning All-Big 12 guard who is being mentioned on several All-American candidate lists.
The night had a comical “Academy Award-La-La-Land-Moonlight” moment when Tyler Mrus and Delaney Gibb were declared the winners of the 3-point shooting contest and handed the trophies. A few minutes later, the PA announcer let the crowd know they had accidently reversed the scores and it was actually Saunders and Marya Hudgins who had won the event.
“Just driving in and seeing all the students kind of flooding the surroundings of the Marriott Center, it was cool,” Young said. “It just gets you excited for basketball season, just seeing the whole lower bowl filled with students. So it was great. Obviously, there’s a lot of excitement around BYU athletics in general. I’m glad that everyone could kind of just see some of our guys tonight.”
The BYU men will travel to Nebraska for an exhibition game on Oct. 18. The women’s team will host Division II Western Colorado in the Marriott Center on Oct. 28.
